evolving technologies

How can technology address the challenges of today's world? Can we handle the large amount of data that surrounds us? Can ICT and Internet help us be more sustainable and more competitive? This blog, created by the Open University of Catalunya (UOC), launches a debate on whether we are prepared to make smarter use of technology. 

Open Thoughts is an annual initiative of the Research and Transfer Support Office is to (OSRT) of the UOC and it had its first experience in 2012 with a blog about gender and ICT. Last year, twenty international personalities answered the question What if Steve Jobs had been a woman? OSRT hopes that this new blog will garner the same success as last year's edition.

Related Links:

Open Thoughts Smarter blog: http://openthoughtsmarter.blogs.uoc.edu/

ICSO-HAROSA research group: http://dpcs.uoc.edu/joomla/

Internet Interdisciplinary Institut:

http://in3.uoc.edu/opencms_portalin3/opencms/en/index.html

Research and Transfer Support Office: http://www.uoc.edu/portal/en/recerca-innovacio/activitat-rdi/index.html

Open Thoughts Gender & ICT blog:  http://openthoughts.blogs.uoc.edu/

Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) are an approach to Technology- Enhanced Learning based on the principles of learner autonomy and empowerment. PLEs include methods, tools, communities, and services constituting individual learning infrastructures or ecosystems which learners use to direct their own learning and pursue their educational goals. This represents a shift away from the traditional model of learning based on knowledge transfer towards a model of learning based on knowledge construction where learners draw connections from a growing pool of online and offline resources to plan, organise, engage in, reflect on and evaluate their learning and development. By focusing on the enhancing learning of individual, yet interconnected learners, the PLE approach encompasses a diversity of learners, tools, perspectives and knowledge.

So far Personal Learning Environments have been designed and implemented in formal and informal learning contexts, such as school and higher education, work-based learning and in-company training, and in continuing education. The potential of Personal Learning Environments for crossing the boundaries of traditional learning contexts, connecting diverse communities and infrastructures has not been fully realised. Therefore, the 4th PLE Conference in 2013 aims at taking the discussion on Personal Learning Environments a step forward, providing a new impulse for PLE research and development.

The theme for the conference is learning and diversity in cities of the future. In view of the “Smart City” concept and the key priorities for research and innovation expressed in the EU Horizon 2020 framework, innovative, sustainable and inclusive solutions become crucial not only in terms of future and emerging technologies but first and foremost in terms of (i) human knowledge and skills, (ii) diverse and inclusive communities, as well as (iii) learning and knowledge networks. Hence, new forms of connected, interdisciplinary learning and cross-boundary cooperation are seen to play a critical role in the development of creative solutions and in the intelligent exploitation of networked urban infrastructures. In smart urban spaces, people, organisations and objects become interconnected by means of new technologies and media, forging new patterns of cooperation, production, research and innovation.

As smart cities we understand smart urban spaces sensu Michael de Certeau, i.e. “practiced places”, places which are transformed and constituted by dynamic and diverse elements (“a tour is different than a map”). From this perspective the following questions emerge:

What shapes can Personal Learning Environments take to support diversity, cross-boundary learning and interdisciplinary transformation of urban spaces? How can we design and implement Personal Learning Environments as part of highly interconnected social and technological infrastructures of smart cities? What technology-enhanced scenarios can be envisaged to enhance learning and diversity in cities of the future?

The research agenda of Creative Learning Lab focuses on the following themes at the moment: playful learning, co-creation, media literacy and user-centric production. But it's not a static agenda: new, relevant subjects will be added where needed.

The Creative Learning Lab is part of the Waag Society, an ICT research foundation working in the social and cultural domain, located in Amsterdam.

To answer questions about the added value of IT and new media for education, the Creative Learning Lab initiates small scale projects in a direct cooperation with end users to develop prototypes and pilots.